New methods are being developed to help make filing tax returns easier for tax payers as well as enable them to receive of the benefits that they deserve.
The IRS works with different organizations around the country to come up with innovative methods of filing taxes from remote locations.
In Provo, Utah, agents of the Utah State University partnered with the Beta Alpha Psi student chapter at BYU and the Community Action in Partnership of Utah to come up with a non-face to face process that they call Remot File.
Remote File works with extension to set up four locales in remote counties. Non-certified volunteers greet tax payers at each site and provide them with an intake form. Once the forms are accomplished, they are scanned along with other tax documents and are then directly uploaded to a secure document management website. When this part is done, tax payers are then seated before a computer and connected via telephone to a certified volunteer who is in a totally different location called a preparation site. These certified volunteers use dual monitor computers in which one screen is used to access the tax payers intake form and other tax documents. The other one runs the TaxWise software. This screen that runs the TaxWise software is shrared with the tax payer. The certified volunteer reviews the intake form and other taxes then completes that the tax return while he the tax payer follows along. Once the tax return is accomplished, a second volunteer at the preparation site then conducts the quality review.
In Saint Paul, MN Accountability MN worked with VITA taxes to reach taxpayers in rural communitites. They use Skype to simulate face to face preparation. The same procedures and quality site requirements of the IRS are in place.
